All posts in category Generation 3

Here’s the slideshow summarizing Soda Pop’s generation. This was by far the hardest one to make because her story wasn’t exactly plot driven and she kept jumping from one guy to the other. There was just so much going on in her story all the time!

Time passed and made sure to let me know. I had been living in a bubble where routines had cornered my days. Routine was safe and something you could expect. But I realized now, time was passing – even for me.

I stood and watched myself in the mirror. I had always loved my reflection. It had always been perfect.

But now? There were wrinkles around my eyes and my forehead was far from as smooth as it used to be. My cheeks were getting sloppy and wrinkly too. A few strands of grey hair hid among my usually colorful mane.

I was starting to look old. And I did not like it. Not one bit.

I clenched the fists in front of me, pushing my nails in to my palms until it hurt. I did not want to become old and wrinkly. It was simply not for me.

As I stood there looking at my own aging reflection an idea formed in my head. I decided to work towards execution as soon as I could since I knew each day that passed brought me closer to a completely wrinkly face and completely faded grey hair.

Thunderbird sounded surprisingly happy when I called him. Perhaps he needed my company as much as I now needed him. Since dad passed away I suspected Thunderbird was feeling quite lonely. From what little I knew, he didn’t exactly have a huge arsenal of friends. Perhaps only Mithos left alive, and he was very busy with his own family and running the town in the right direction. It would soon be time for him to resign from the post as Mayor, but he had a few years still and Canary had let me know that her father did everything he could to make sure the town remained safe for berries no matter of their color.

Thunderbird never went to check on the younger kids who were playing upstairs and he didn’t even ask one single question concerning them. It probably still hurt him to think about the hope he had built up and how it had been all shattered when Lychee turned out to be the father. Instead, he sat down next to me in the sofa and smiled at me.

“You needed to talk with me?” His eyes seemed to burn right through me. He was gorgeous. The high cheek bones, the rarely exposed fangs and the fiery eyes. I felt a familiar feeling of lust grow inside me but did my best to shake it off. I had not invited him for the simple pleasure. We had business to discuss.

“What’s it like? Being a vampire?”

“What?” He seemed surprised.

“What’s it like? You never said anything about it. Except the fact that you can grow old without aging.”

“It’s a curse” he said and stared at me. For a moment I thought he would mind control me somehow, making me forget my plan of perhaps becoming a vampire myself but I didn’t feel any different when he finally turned his eyes away.

“We’re predators and we’re constantly hungry. And most of us can’t stand the sunlight and on the rare occasion we actually befriend humans we see them die before we even get to know them. I know what you’re thinking Soda, and I won’t do it. You deserve better.”

“I don’t want to grow old” I said and probably sounded like a child who didn’t get the lollipop she wanted.

“You don’t know what you’re asking” Thunderbird protested and stood up. But I knew exactly what I asked for, I wanted him to turn me. I wanted to leave the human life behind and die or whatever it meant to become a vampire. I wanted the everlasting youth and the sexy fangs and the whole package, even if I didn’t know exactly what it consisted of.

He started to walk away, which must have been his way of saying no, but I followed him and stood between him and the front door, preventing him from walking out unless he physically pushed me aside. I didn’t think he would do that.

“Please Thunderbird. At least consider it. I have nothing to bind me to this life. I want to become one of you. A vampire.”

He shook his head, “No Soda. You don’t. You just think you will get a never aging pretty face. But that’s not all. It really is a curse, you know. The urges are overwhelming sometimes. And you’re a social being and being a vampire is a lonely life. You reside on your own, you are on your own. It’s the only way of survival. You get to watch the friends and family you care die, several times. You go through your days wishing you would age just another year. What’s a lifetime for you now, is nothing for me. You do not want that. You don’t want to go through the effort of learning how to control the urge to kill the first living being you see. You do not want to learn how the smell of blood twists your throat begging you to rip the berry in front of you to pieces. You do not want to experience the longing for knowing what your best friend tastes like. And you, Soda Pop Twist, could never stand the eternal loneliness. I’m not doing it.”

He walked away and again I found myself in front of the mirror. It seemed like the wrinkles had doubled since yesterday and I saw several more grey hairs. I needed to make him turn me, it was the only way I could stop the transformation that had begun.

Each day afterwards I called him. And each day he shot me down, saying I could never handle the life as a vampire. But with each no, I grew more determined. And with each no and each new reason he gave me, I learned more of what it meant to be a vampire.

It seemed like the tales of vampires we all knew weren’t so far from the actual truth, even though Thunderbird promised me that it was a lot harder to actually be one and that it had taken him several lifetimes to manage to control himself enough to be out among berries. And even so, the urges sometimes got to him and he had to vanish from the scene to not do something he would forever regret. Nothing he told me made me change my mind though. I wanted to become a vampire and I was ready to fight for it.

“Pretty please with sugar on top Thunder” I said the next time I managed to convince him to come around and I stretched my arm out in front of his nose. I could see how his nostrils fluttered when the scent of my blood came close. His eyes lit up, even if it was barely noticeable.

“Soda, no. I can’t make you go through it. Do you even know how many times I wished I was different, more normal? Do you know how many times I’ve wished that I would age along with my friends? Do you even realize how much you would have to leave behind?”

I kept my arm below his nose as I answered his question, “I would leave my house, my kids, my brothers, Plum and Canary. I would leave my job and my entire life. I know. It’s the only thing I want. I want to be a vampire Thunderbird. I really do.”

“Then you are the stupidest berry I have ever met” he said and shook his head.

“Please do it. Turn me. You won’t have to be alone. We can live together, you can teach me everything I need to know. I’m ready to leave it all. Please?” I almost whispered. I needed him to turn me and that within the next few days unless I wanted to age in to an old lady. And I couldn’t do that, it would be impossible.

“No. It’s final. I can’t do it to you or your kids or your friends. It’s not fair.” He turned his back against me and clenched his fists along the sides of his body. I had never seen him so focused before and I hoped that perhaps it was because it was hard for him to say no. Perhaps he was actually that lonely that he did consider turning me.

I took a pin from my hair and used it to tear a hole in my wrist and when the blood started to pour out from the tiny wound I noticed how Thunderbird’s body stiffened and his fists clenched harder by his side, turning the knuckles white as my own skin.

“I’m bleeding” I whispered and pressed out a few more drips of blood.

Before I knew it, Thunderbird had turned around and taken my arm in a steady grip. He growled from the bottom of his throat in a way I had never heard him do before and at that moment I was glad that my children were all in school. He held my arm with such strength that for a moment I was afraid he would break it. Just shortly afterwards his fangs sunk down in my flesh and I felt how the blood pumped in my veins as he fed on me.

The pain that came with his feeding was overwhelming. It felt like my arm was on fire and the more he ate off me, the more it hurt. My knees wobbled and I was probably being held up only by the force of Thunderbird’s grip. But even through the pain, I felt myself smile. My plan had worked. This was what I wanted all along.

Soon enough the venom from Thunderbird’s fangs would spread in my body and my berry blood would be transformed in to vampire blood which could flow through my veins even though my heart would stop beating.

Thunderbird groaned slightly as the blood travelled through my veins and in to his mouth. My vision turned red and before I lost my conscience I found myself wondering if he enjoyed the taste of my blood.

I woke up when his fangs left my flesh and when his grip of my arm loosened and I started falling to the floor. He caught me easily with one hand and when I opened my eyes and saw the blood dripping down from his mouth I smiled.

With a smacking sound Thunderbird licked his mouth and removed any sign of the blood that had covered the lower part of his face just a moment ago. I was still weak but I managed to stand on my own. “Was it good?” I wondered, my voice barely managing to speak.

“I haven’t fed on fresh blood in two lifetimes” Thunderbird admitted.

Just a moment later he walked away to the other end of the room and I heard him gasping for air as the realization of what we had just done hit him. I didn’t say anything. I didn’t dare to.

“Fudge” he cursed with his back still turned to me.

I walked up to the biggest window of the livingroom and looked out at the sun. I would need to buy blinds for all these windows. Perhaps I would miss the sun once the transformation was complete. But it was a small price to pay for eternal youth.

“What now?” I asked. I did not know what to expect of the actual transformation, except that it would be ‘the hardest thing I’ve ever gone through’.

“You’re the biggest idiot I know Soda. Fudge. Fudge.” Thunderbird looked like he wanted to break down and cry, but as far as I knew vampires couldn’t cry.

“This was what I wanted” I said blankly. “Thanks. But what now? I need to buy blinds, don’t I?”

“No. You won’t need any blinds. You can’t live here. Fudge!” He talked like that now, spreading curses among his normal speech. It wasn’t like him but I suppose his life was about to change along with mine. “You’re going to wish I killed you. And fudge, I should have!”

“For how long? When will it be complete?”

“How should I know? I never turned anyone.”

“But you turned once. How long did it take?”

“I was passed out the entire time. I don’t know. I guess we’ll see. Fudge, I didn’t sign up to be your mentor Soda.” The entire time he spoke he didn’t turn to look at me a single time. His voice revealed that he was very angry and disappointed. Probably as much with himself for doing it as with me for tricking him in to something he didn’t really want to do.

I walked up to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Thunderbird, thank you. And I’m sorry.”

After a little while Thunderbird let out a heavy sigh and told me to pack my things. It wasn’t until then I realized that I was really going to leave my life behind and run off in the sunset with Thunderbird. I was going to become a vampire and when I did, I couldn’t be near any of my old friends or my kids. It wasn’t until then that I realized that I had no idea of what I had signed up for. But I wasn’t scared – it was simply exciting. It was a new adventure and while I packed my belongings I smiled.

—

Three small suitcases for a new life.

It wasn’t easy to decide what things I should bring with me, but in the end I just packed whatever clothes I first laid my hands on. I considered packing my trophies and my prom picture and the crown and all the awards my career had brought me, but in the end I decided against it. They were all parts of the life I was leaving behind and not the life I was heading towards. And in a way, they belonged to this house.

Thunderbird brought me to a huge house in the outskirts of the town. I had never seen the house before but it looked really old so it must have been there for quite some time. I suspected that it was where Thunderbird lived.

He didn’t speak to me on the entire way to the house and when we got to the doors he simply opened them and pushed me inside, still without speaking. I stumbled a little as I was pushed over the doorstep and when I regained my balance I looked around. The room was big with stone walls and all the windows were covered with heavy curtains. It was very dark, the only light source a few flickering candles hanging on the walls.

Thunderbird walked past me and sat down in a big leather chair further down the room. He covered his face with his hands and his body started shaking. I did not know if it was some sort of crying or something vampires did. I knew nothing about being a vampire and that was just as exciting as it was frightening.

A while later Thunderbird showed me to a room on the upper floor. Judging by the cob webs covering the furniture it hadn’t been used for quite some time. “Get yourself comfortable, I’ll be back later” Thunderbird said, still angry with me for tricking him. I sat down on the bed and the springs squeaked under my weight. So this was my new home?

I didn’t see Thunderbird for the rest of the day, even though I did go look for him. I didn’t make it very far though, as my body still felt as if it was on fire and I felt very weak. It didn’t take long until I gave up and just laid down on the bed and fell in to an uneasy slumber. I had weird and bad dreams that night and when I woke up the next morning my body hurt even more.

There was a fire within my body and it travelled through my veins with such aggression that the only thing I managed to do was to cry. I was used to fires, but this one was something I never could have imagined. I twisted and turned around in the bed, my fists clenched and my throat pursed together. It felt as I was being smothered and I gasped for air. The more I breathed in, the more it hurt and in the end I just pressed my lips shut and screamed without a sound.

Thunderbird came in to my room at one point, but I don’t know how long he stayed there or what time it was when he did come. “You’re turning” he said blankly and his eyes were without emotions what-so-ever.

“It hurts” I groaned and the fires in my body licked my insides. It felt as if I was dying, which I probably was – in a way.

“I told you so” Thunderbird said and left me on my own, which made me furious. He couldn’t just leave me like this, could he? I needed him now, more than I had ever needed anybody before.

Because it was dark in my room I did not know how much time had passed and while I laid in the bed the pain just kept growing and growing. At one point I called out for Thunderbird and when he appeared in my room I begged him to kill me. He did come up to me then, with a wooden stake in his hand. “I’ll pierce your heart with this and it will all go away. Is that what you want?” he wondered and caressed the stake in his hands. I nodded and begged for him to do it. He raised it over my chest and I closed my eyes, thinking it couldn’t be worse than the pains I already had. But he never pierced my heart with the stake, instead he leaned over my face as if he was going to kiss me. “It should be over soon” he whispered and stroked my forehead.

And so one day I woke up and the pain was all gone except for a burning throat. I went downstairs and found Thunderbird sitting in a sofa. He didn’t look at me when I entered the room but he nodded towards a glass that was filled with a thick red fluid. “You need to drink” he said and I took the glass, knowing exactly what it contained but even so it didn’t make me feel disgusted. I drank the blood without any hesitation and to no surprise it tasted like heaven. No doubt it was the best thing I had ever tasted and when the glass was empty I instantly wanted another.

“Is there more?” I asked and smacked my lips.

Thunderbird shook his head no and told me I had to be careful with how much I drank, especially now in the beginning. I needed to learn how to control myself. It was a short lesson, but it gave me the basics. He ended it with saying that I was to find my own place as soon as I could control myself and as soon as he could be safe knowing I wouldn’t go on a killing spree in town. “And fudge Soda, I seriously hate you for this. You are the most impulsive ‘bow I’ve ever met, you’ll be the worst vampire ever.”

“You’re not sorry” I said, feeling strong and invisible after my drink. “You’re actually happy that you’re not alone anymore. I’m not leaving you and you don’t want me to.” I don’t know how I could be so sure, but somehow I knew that was what he was thinking.

“You’re right” he muttered came closer to me. “But you’re also wrong because I am sorry. Do you know how much it hurts for your loved ones to lose you? It may take an eternity until you can control yourself and they won’t ever know what happened to you.”

“They will know for you will tell them. You will leave them a letter. This was what I wanted. This is the right thing.”

He shook his head again, clearly not agreeing with me, even though he was happy to get some company. “You really are going to be the worst vampire ever. Fudge, you’re going to be dangerous for real!”

Despite his worries about my capability as a vampire, he did take me under his wing and he did teach me how to control my hunger – even though I was a slow learner. It wasn’t easy, always longing for blood. The pure smell of it made my throat twist and my fangs sharpen. I knew he was right, I would most likely never see my kids or friends again for I would simply want to kill them.

Still this was what I had wanted and when I looked myself in the mirror I felt content. I made a really stunning vampire. I would always be beautiful. Always.

This marks the end of Soda Pop’s generation. I’ve enjoyed playing her very much and now I look forward to playing Coral instead. Soda’s rolls are not quite fulfilled yet (and in game she still lives in the legacy home – but in the story she doesn’t) and I will make sure to fulfill them as soon as possible. Since Salmon is just a toddler yet, it will take some time. With all the renovations to the legacy home, including the spa in the garden (I’ll show you in the next update) I count the Luxury roll as completed. Deadbeat Parents are still left, though.

One day when I got home from a call-out I found Lychee in Salmon’s nursery. “What are you doing here?” I asked and felt both angry and sad at the same time. It was adorable watching him snuggle with Salmon but it made me sad to think he had chosen to be involved with another family. I wanted that help I saw in front of me and my kids would do good with a man in the house.

“I didn’t know we had a son” Lychee replied after a while and kissed Salmon on his tiny little mouth. My heart almost stopped from the cuteness.

“I have a son” I corrected him. “You’ve chosen another family so Salmon is my son.”

Lychee slowly turned to look at me. “Soda, I still love these kids and I won’t stop coming to see them. Don’t you understand that?”

“You will once you have your other child. The love child” I pouted. Lychee promised me he wouldn’t but I knew he was lying. Why would he go through the effort of coming back to Fondant Fields when he had everything he needed in Briocheport?

—

You never really stop working when you’re the Fire Chief and when I did such a simple thing as eat a dinner with my oldest nephew at the diner a fire broke loose at the table next to us. It was Jewel’s best friend, Deluge, who was playing with his napkin when it suddenly caught fire and when he raised the napkin in panic over his head his hair also caught fire.

Everyone at the diner jumped up from their seats and started crying in panic. I felt the usual adrenaline kick that always came with a fire but I remained calm. I knew how to deal with fires by now. I took out my extinguisher and started putting the fire out. The small portable extinguisher I always brought with me was far from as effective as the ones I was used to and it seemed like the flames got higher instead of dying out even though I pushed the extinguisher to its full effect.

Someone called my co-workers and it felt like it took forever for them to get here. Drops of sweat ran down my forehead and the only two sounds I could hear was the hungry flames spreading across the young boy’s body and Jewel’s desperate cries, begging me to save his friend.

I did everything I could, but the fire was too strong and soon the little boy collapsed on the ground. It wasn’t until the fire was completely put out that I realized he was already gone. It was my first, and biggest, failure as a firefighter.

I had never been very affected by other bow’s misery or destinies but seeing the young boy die before me broke my heart. I was a good firefighter and the fact that a young boy with his whole life ahead of him could die at my watch was unbelievable. Jewel cried and cried and cried behind me and the sound of that just added to the feeling of failure that I felt.

What kind of woman was I? I couldn’t even take my nephew out for dinner without getting him scarred for life.

I could do nothing to comfort him. I knew nothing of the pain he was going through even though my life had been so much longer and even though I had been through a few losses of my own. “He was my best friend” Jewel sniffed and buried his face in his hands. The thought of losing Plum or Canary pierced my heart like a knife. How could I put him in this situation. It was my fault. I should have done better. I should have saved his friend.

When I brought him back home, in a crying and broken mess, Blizzard promised me it wasn’t my fault. He said that I had done everything I could – but I knew he couldn’t know because he hadn’t been there. Maybe there was something I could have done?

—

A few days later Bittersweet celebrated her birthday. I couldn’t celebrate and only cheered half-heartedly as she blew the candles of her cake. I hadn’t been able to forgive myself for letting the young boy die.

Bittersweet looked a lot like Precious now that her pudgy child cheeks disappeared and her more grownup facial structure took its place. It was my coloring, but she was sure her father’s daughter. I smiled faintly. It still hurt to think I had lost him and that I had to raise our child by myself, but I realized that he was still around – in our daughter. A part of her was him and even if I never wanted a family or dreamed of children, it was rather amazing to see how genetics were passed down. She was sure a mix of the both of us, just like Coral was a true mix of myself and Lychee.

I felt a little bit of curiosity towards seeing the other two kids grow up too.

And speaking of grown-up kids… It wasn’t rare that Taxus brought Hyacinth with him home from school. In fact, it was more rare that she didn’t come with him. Their eyes sparkled when they looked at each other in a way I had never felt my own eyes sparkle. They were young, but they loved each other.

“We’re getting married” Taxus announced one day and I just nodded. I wasn’t surprised.

“I know we’re young” he continued and Hyacinth rolled her thumbs nervously next to him. “But we want to do it. We’re meant to be together.”

“I know” I said. It made perfect sense and was no doubt the truth.

—

“But they’re too young” Plum said a couple of days later when we discussed the matter.

I agreed, even though I also thought it made sense to let them get married. I mean, only the two of them could know if it was really true love, right?

“Hyacinth is only fifteen! It’s too early.” Plum started walking back and forth in the room and I could tell it was upsetting her to realize that her little girl was growing up. She had no other, she couldn’t hold on to the childhood like I could because of my other kids. With Hyacinth aging, it became so clear that we were aging too. And Plum wasn’t ready.

“I can’t believe she’s grown so much” Plum said and looked sad. “Felt like yesterday she came in to my life.”

“You can be glad she’s older and can take care of herself” I said just as Watermelon started crying hysterically for what seemed like no reason at all.

Plum went to pick her up and played air-plane with her. She still enjoyed my kids’ young age. She still adored them. It struck me that she had become such a good mother over the years. She was like a second mother to all of my kids, and soon Taxus would technically be her son-in-law. Our families would officially be tied together. It was a pleasant thought.

We agreed to help them with the marriage under the condition that they waited until they had both finished high school. Knowing how funny time was, that would pretty much be tomorrow.

—

And once both Taxus and Hyacinth had graduated they started preparing themselves for the upcoming wedding. I was pretty much as excited as them about the whole deal and spent a lot of time helping them pick out the right cake and setup a reception area in our garden. And the time before the wedding passed very fast and when my son and his fiance took a picture the last day before becoming a true family I actually shed a tear.

It was just so sweet to see.

—

On the day of Taxus’ wedding our closest family and friends gathered in the garden. Since it was really a bond between two families of friends, no guests had to really pick a side or anything. It was just a logical bond declared official. I was happy to see my son marry a Spring. From what I understood, our two families had always been close and a marriage was a fine next step.

Although, it did pain me to realize I had a son old enough to get married. How old did that make me?

Not a single eye was dry that day. It was touching to see Taxus and Hyacinth declare their love for each other.

The whole gathering swooned as the two lovebirds shared their vows and for the first time in my life, I realized that perhaps there was such a thing as love. It certainly seemed true to the two under the wedding arch. It was the only possible explanation to why their eyes sparkled like they did when they looked at each other.

Taxus looked as if he couldn’t believe that it was actually happening when he slid the ring on Hyacinth’s finger. And in all honesty, I could barely believe it myself. Hyacinth was stunning, while Taxus was modest – at the best.

Still, Hyacinth smiled when she slid the ring on Taxus finger without even the slightest of hesitation. She was sure that he was the one.

It made me happy. All my life, I had just wished for my kids to be happy. I clearly saw that Taxus was just that in Hyacinth’s arms. It made proud of myself when I understood that all those years I had done everything I needed to push Taxus towards the future where he belonged – to the girl he was meant to be with. I had been a good enough mother – even though I never knew how to.

After the ceremony the two of them just stood looking lovingly in to each others’ eyes. It was as if they were trying to understand that this was the beginning, that they would always get to be together. I couldn’t believe it myself.

Once the sun set we moved the party inside where we could all cheer on Taxus while he cut the cake. Bittersweet seemed incredibly happy for her big brother’s sake. But then again, Bittersweet was pretty much always happy about something.

In the end of the day, Hyacinth was named Twist and Taxus had married his princess and the guests all had a good time. It had been a good day.

Okay, the writing for the wedding is kind of meh, but I just couldn’t get it right. Since it’s not really that important for the rest of the story I let it be. Taxus is now moved out of the household along with his Hyacinth. They actually moved in with uncle Loquat – which I assume has to do with StoryProgression trying to keep the Founder house in the family. In a way it makes sense because Taxus isn’t that much different from Loquat in the sense that they are both quiet but incredibly friendly men.

There will be an Heir Vote up before too long now since Coral is also getting close to become a YA. Keep your eyes open!

True to his word, Lychee came around whenever he had business in Fondant Fields and always made sure to spend some time with his daughter. It was sweet watching them two forming a bond I had never been able to form with any of the children. It was also nice getting under the sheets with him and get to feel wanted and attractive if only for that particular night.

Hyacinth and Taxus’ friendship lasted through elementary school and to high school until it took a little turn and they got romantically involved. I was thrilled about it. My son couldn’t possibly have chosen a better girl to have by his side than my best friends’ daughter.

I didn’t intentionally snoop on them but they were rather open with showing off their affections so it was hard not to notice them.

Hyacinth was definitely the one to take the most initiatives and I think Taxus was rather insecure of himself, although I couldn’t for my life figure where that came from. It was certainly not something he had inherited from me and from what I knew about his father he was anything but insecure too.

Plum suggested that it did have to do with how little attention I had shown him during his early years but that didn’t really make any sense. He had always got everything he asked for.

I myself had earned another promotion and was now among the top squad firefighters and I had earned myself a new, mighty suit to show off in. Shame I never really got any use for the old firefighter card anymore, though. Not that my progress within the career went by unnoticed because I got stopped out on the streets occasionally just to get praise for what I did for this town.

I was very busy with work and kids and transforming my house in to a home, which was getting easier with every promotion and the raised salary, but when I did have some time to spare I used it as always – by hanging out with friends and family. Blizzard and Spray had recently had a little baby boy who they named Jewel and he was actually quite cute. He had the same skin color as Blizzard and Spray’s orange hair.

Even after having three kids myself I was a bit uneasy being with toddlers. They seemed so fragile and would start crying for the smallest thing.

—

It seemed that it was only yesterday Bittersweet and Coral celebrated their last birthday and yet the time for another one had come. Bittersweet went first because I couldn’t wait to see her grow up to a child and leave me with no babies or toddlers to care for. It had certainly been a long time since that happened last.

Once little Bittersweet had aged up she grabbed one of the partyhorns and started cheering on her older sister for all that her lungs could manage.

And Coral aged up and once again surprised me with her stunning looks. She looked so much with Lychee and it was funny because I had never really considered Lychee himself to be a looker. I realized looking at my daughter that he had to be, though.

Poor little Bittersweet didn’t have an easy time being the minor of the family and she seemed to constantly be jumped upon, especially by Taxus. I guess that’s just how teenagers are but it still surprised me since he had been really caring about her when she was a toddler.

When Bittersweet went for her first school day I had a bit of a déjà vu. I hoped it would be simply food poisoning, but I feared that I was once again pregnant.

My fears soon got real as I started showing off another baby bump. My kids all thought it was weird, and I didn’t blame them. It wasn’t like I had been the best parent to them, and yet I was going to go through it all again.

As for the father this time, I knew it had to be either Lychee or Thunderbird as they had been my only partners during the past few months. I had no idea whether vampires could breed and certainly not whether they could in that case breed with berries. I tried to ask Thunderbird about it without revealing my own suspicions that he could be the father of my own unborn child, but of course that did not go very well.

Both he and Lychee interacted with my belly after that as if the baby inside was theirs.

Thunderbird himself wasn’t sure whether vampires and normal berries could reproduce either but it seemed to make him even more excited. I suppose the thought of being the first of the kind made him excited and it honestly made me quite excited as well, even though it also made me worried. I knew nothing about vampires except what Thunderbird himself had shared with me and I was quite sure that he hadn’t explained it all.

—

Taxus never rebelled against me after aging up to a teenager, but Coral did – in her own way. She decided to become a vegetarian, which in my ears was rather weird. Anyhow, when she asked me for a plot of land in the garden to grow her own vegetables, I agreed and bought her everything she would need to get started. I even went about and bought her a recycling bin, which I promised to try to learn myself.

She rummaged through town for seeds lying about and picked whatever ripes she could plant seeds from and started growing her own little garden. I didn’t understand how she could find it fun to crawl on the ground getting dirty, but she certainly seemed to enjoy.

She tended to those plants as if they had been living things and I simply couldn’t understand what the joy in it was. Still, I let her be at it as it eased the stress on myself trying to keep her occupied. Bittersweet liked being out there and watch her older sister and she kept asking questions about the process. It was a good thing because it meant I was left mostly to care for myself.

During the third trimester of my pregnancy the whole family took a trip down to the festival lot. The snow was lying wet and heavy on the ground, telling us that spring was right around the corner.

Taxus and Hyacinth couldn’t keep their hands off each other and were seen sucking faces pretty much the entire day.

I myself gathered spring eggs around the lot.

And Coral… Well I’m not sure where she gets everything from but she is certainly a lot different from me. Why would anyone dive willingly down to a container? “We need to be more careful about the world” she simply said. “Way too much things gets thrown away even though it’s perfectly usable.”

I just shook my head, that was definitely something I would never understand. She had only needed to ask and I would have given her anything she wanted. But no! She wanted to search for it herself, in the dumpsters. She even brought some of the stuff she found with her home! I considered forbidding the stuff to get through our front door but then Bittersweet was overly happy about the new side table she got for her room and I caved in.

Later that night I went in to labour. Perhaps it had been the stress over the new garbage furnitures in my home or perhaps it was simply time. With the fear of it being a vampire child, I decided to head to the hospital this time and I called both Lychee and Thunderbird, asking them to be there.

In the end it was Lychee who got to head home with us. A few tests had been run on the baby and both Lychee and Thunderbird and as such we found out that Lychee was the father of the child.

Thunderbird looked a bit sad when we got the news but he shrugged it off and left us alone shortly afterwards. In a way I was relieved that my baby was no vampire since I had no clue how to raise a vampire. At least I had some experience with normal babies, even if I never pretended to be an expert. Lychee loved the baby with all his heart and just as he had done when he found out that Coral was his, he came over frequently to check on his new daughter. He was also the one to choose the name for her: Watermelon.

He still had lots of work to do with his record company in Briocheport and even though he said he would want to be around more often, he just couldn’t leave his job unattended for long periods of time. I was secretly happy about this since I was certainly not ready to live the normal family life.

And with Lychee away, I was free to keep spending time with Thunderbird. He kept going in to look at Watermelon and I figured he was imagining a scenario where she was his and not Lychee’s. I never approached him about it and he never brought it up, but surely he had to feel rather lonely with everyone aging around him. I couldn’t even imagine how many friends he must have lost along the way. I don’t think I could have done it.

One day he suddenly announced that he couldn’t do it anymore, that it hurt him to see Watermelon and not be her father. That his hopes of having a baby had been so high and were now crushed in to dust and that he needed to get away. I never saw him again.

I told Canary and Plum about it of course the next time they came over. They just shrugged though, unable to understand how I could even want to have all these men in my life. According to them I had to settle and start providing a decent life for my children.

“Isn’t that what we have said too, mom?” Coral teased and looked up at us. I twisted my body back and forth. They simply didn’t understand, did they?

“I’m serious Soda” Canary said when I started shaking my head. “You can’t go on like this. You’re not a teenager anymore. You’re a grownup woman with four kids to care for. You have to accept that.”

Maybe they had a point. After all, Coral and Taxus did take a great responsibility at home and were constantly checking on Watermelon. Especially Coral, who must have loved the fact that they were real siblings with the same parents.

Bittersweet kept looking up to her older sister and did whatever she could to impress on her. Usually Coral let her help in the garden but sometimes she grew tired of her and sent her away to ‘fish or something’.

The few times Bittersweet actually brought some catches home they made use of it as fertilizer in the garden and if they didn’t Bittersweet just put her catches in a tank in her room. There was never even the faintest idea of us actually eating them.

In fact, Bittersweet brought a lot of stuff home that she had found in the nature. Bugs included. They were gross but as long as she cared for them herself I didn’t complain.

Like her older sister, Bittersweet enjoyed the nature and what it had to offer. She often repeated her older sister’s words about taking care of the earth and the world and be careful with its resources. Words far too big to come from a young child as herself. It was pretty clear that I was not her biggest role-model, even though I was the best firefighter in this town.

Sometimes the two girls went out to fish together and I knew that it was the best thing Bittersweet knew. She loved it whenever her older sister gave her credit for anything, and just hanging out with her was the greatest pleasure the younger girl could imagine.

It was during such a day, when the two girls were out fishing and Taxus visiting Hyacinth that I realized I was pregnant again. I had never heard of a woman as fertile as myself and that was the worst curse I could think of. I never wanted a child and yet I had more than anyone I knew.

I had almost forgot how much babies scream but Watermelon made sure to remind me. She seemed to cry constantly, always demanding something. I was stupid to even get in to the position of awaiting another child. I swore to myself to never woohoo again in my life. I couldn’t go through this anymore.

When Lychee came over the next time he gave me a bouquet of red flowers, which made me suspicious because he had never bothered with anything of the kind before. Could he really have figured that I was pregnant before I even told him?

“I have to tell you something” he said once I had put the flowers in a vase.

“I’m having another child” he said.

“How could you know?”

“What?”

“How did you know we are having another one? I never told you.”

“Oh” his smile faded and his shoulders started to slouch. “You’re pregnant?” he whispered and I suddenly understood that he had not been referring to me in the first place.

“Fudge!” I screamed and felt the tears burning in my eyes. I couldn’t go through this! Not again and certainly not alone. “Yes Lychee. Yes I’m fudging pregnant!” I screamed and it was loud enough to wake Watermelon who started crying as well.

“It’ll be alright” he promised. “I’ll still send you some money…”

Money? I sniffed. Money would do no good to keep me sane with another child in the house. But what could I do?

“I need your help with this Lychee” I whispered, admitting my own shortcoming out loud for the first time.

“I’ll send money. You’ll be fine” he said again. It was certainly not the words I had wanted to hear. “But Soda, you and I… It was never love. We just needed each other and we took advantage of each other. And now I’ve found love again and I never thought that was possible after Butterfly Bush but I’m feeling happy and she’s having my child. I need to be with her.”

I had heard these words before, hadn’t I?

I started to cry when I realized there was nothing I could do and Lychee picked Watermelon up from her crib and left me alone in the nursery. “I hope you’ll find the right one sometime too. You deserve it, Soda” he said when he left the room.

I felt miserable. Truly, truly miserable.

—

When we celebrated Watermelon’s birthday it was done with only my family and friends gathered. No fathers.

She had my nose and a couple of thin locks of my hair color. And my mother’s eyes. I shrugged, it was a shame anything of my mother had to live on in my own kids. Taxus had her eyes and now Watermelon as well.

It was a quiet and still celebration with people who knew pretty much everything about each other and who enjoyed each others’ company.

The last kid I would ever had was born a few days later. It was a little boy with my pale skin. I decided to name him Salmon.

The last baby. I swore to myself to never again enjoy the sensual and sweet thing that was known as woohoo. I seemed to be cursed with fertility and I did not want to risk another baby or we would outgrow the house I loved so much.

It was a soothing feeling, knowing that Salmon would be the last and it actually made it bearable to go up in the middle of the night to feed him or change his diaper. I even found myself smiling now and then while carrying him. It wasn’t so bad when you knew you would never have to do it again and instead I could enjoy the moments we shared, making them something worth remembering.

I’m sorry about the hopping back and forth between partners in this generation but StoryProgression does not seem to approve of Soda’s lifestyle and pairs her partners up whenever I think I’ve come to a decision. Depending on who will be the next heir this is most likely the last time she has to go through a lover leaving her for someone else. Lychee got a daughter with the other woman – I’ll add her to the familytree eventually just for you all to see.

Lychee and Coral are actually Best Friends, which makes Coral the only of the three older kids to be friends with her father. And holy schmoly is she a gorgeous teenager?! She did roll the Vegetarian trait as well as the wish to learn gardening – which is really good for the story in the next generation as I will need a garden but couldn’t for my life figure a way to let Soda Pop start it. That being said, Coral is not named heir yet. I want to see the other children grow before deciding whether to throw an heir vote or before I decide the heir on my own. 🙂

And sorry to everyone who was rooting for Thunderbird. He simply couldn’t knock her up, even though I used ‘Try for Baby’. It seems it wasn’t meant to be. Luckily he’s a vampire so we don’t have to count him out off the family tree yet. 😉

Soda Pop has reached level 10 of the firefighter career and can now work from home. I found it incredibly funny when she autonomously changed in to her career outfit and went to check herself out in the mirror. That, dear readers, is Soda Pop in a nutshell!

I now have six bedrooms in the house and Soda Pop’s own is the only one which isn’t properly furnished. That shall be done with the next paycheck she receives and after that I will build a swimming pool and a spa in her garden and once that’s done I think I’ve fulfilled the Luxury roll.

Here’s a picture of the newly decorated laundry room (don’t ask me why I prioritized this because I have no idea. I like it, though. It only needs some paintings now):

Taxus had become a teenager already and it was the first birthday ever in this house that we didn’t host a party for. I felt a bit bad about it but he assured me it was just fine. I gave him an easel for his birthday and he was pretty much glued to it the entire night so it probably wouldn’t have made much difference if there had been a lot of people in the house anyway. He seemed happy.

I was still thinking about a way to make the kids get to know their fathers because I didn’t want them to have the same childhood as I had and when I was sitting with Taxus I brought the idea up with him.

“A gift giving party with our fathers?” he asked and didn’t sound very excited. “Don’t bother inviting my father. I don’t care anyway. But maybe the girls do, what do I know…”

I thought about it a lot but in the end I decided to invite Flamenco anyway. He didn’t show up though. Perhaps he thought the trip would be too long or he simply didn’t care enough about a teenage son he had never met.

Lychee and Precious came though, along with the rest of my closest family. Which was growing quite quickly and also involved my cousin Butterfly Bush because she and Lychee were a couple. Appletini also came with her son Ferrari as a part of Precious’ closest family. And dad brought Thunderbird, they seemed to hang out more often now that mom was gone and dad was lonely while Mithos still had his big family. I certainly did not complain, Thunderbird was h-o-t.

The party was alright even if the kids didn’t exactly speak too much with their fathers (and the fathers didn’t try too hard either) and even though not everyone was overly happy with their gifts. But still, it was alright and I had given my children the opportunity to get to know their fathers and that meant I had done what I could. I would probably keep trying because I didn’t want my own children to feel as abandoned as I had felt.

This is what I gave my kids: Taxus got some new paint brushes and a big sketch pad. Coral got a toy oven and a painting of a horse. Bittersweet got a toybox.

And I myself got the best possible gift once the party was over. I couldn’t think of a better way to end a gift giving party than to woohoo in the igloo your kids had built in your garden.

—

Life kept going its steady course after that. I worked a lot.

Hung out with my kids.

And behold! Precious.

Not that it was intentional most of the times, he simply happened to be at Appletini’s place when I came to visit and it actually seemed like my little outburst had done wonders to him because one day he suggested that he come to visit me and Bittersweet. I tried to hide the massive joy I felt and simply agreed. Maybe he would want to be by my side after all. Maybe!

However, that did not happen. He came to visit a few hours each time he was in town but he always left shortly after without so much as a hug. I realized that I dug that grave myself by lying in the first place and then repeating the lie but as the truth. At least he was around now and then and at least Bittersweet would know her father. And the few times he was actually around were the happiest moments in my life nowadays.

I could stand just watching him as he played with his daughter or the times he brought Ferrari with him we would stand next to each other and just watch the two kids play. Simply being close to him sent tingles through my body, which was something I had never experienced with anyone else.

Precious Pastry, he sure was unique.

Spending time with Precious was like riding a roller coaster that only went uphill. I was so happy in his company even if we weren’t romantically involved and I obviously wished for that to happen. The thing with rollercoasters, though, is that they need to go downhill at some point and when they do it may take you by surprise and leave you feeling both surprised and sick. At least that was how I felt when the Precious-coaster crashed down.

“I’m seeing someone” he said one day. I had never considered such a thing to even be an option and as soon as he said it the world crashed on my shoulders and it felt like everything went black.

“But, we have a baby” I murmured while a wave of nausea rushed through my body. He couldn’t be seeing someone, we were a family for berry’s sake!

“And she’s adorable but I’m not in love with you, We have no future.”

“But we have a past!” I couldn’t let him go. I couldn’t accept him being with someone else. I needed him, he should know I did.

“A past, yes. But I have a future too, and it can’t be with you. I think I’m in love with this girl Soda. I want to take the chance.” He looked down as he spoke and he looked genuinely sad.

Bittersweet kept playing as if everything was normal and as if the whole world wasn’t falling apart at this moment. Precious smiled when he looked at her and I kept cursing to myself over the fact that he was so good-looking and over the fact that he was like no other guy I had ever met. I cursed the fact that I had fallen head over heels for him and I cursed the fact that I could be so blue-eyed and believe that there could even be a thing such as love.

I grabbed his arms and kneeled down to be able to look him straight in the eye as I said: “If you walk away you lose us both.” I knew that I wouldn’t be able to spend time with him if my chances of having a future with him was taken away. I had lived on that hope, had imagined us like a family and he just stomped on that image as if it was worth nothing. So I had to make him choose, either he wanted his daughter (and I could tell he adored her) or he walked away from us both.

He kneeled down and kissed Bittersweet on the forehead. “I have to take this chance” he whispered. Before I knew it he was gone. From the room, from my life, from our family but not from my dreams. I sunk down on the floor in Bittersweet’s nursery and cried. Never before had my life felt so hopeless.

—

Since becoming a mother I hadn’t gone out to party or drink much. It was weird thinking about how much my life had changed even though I had been determined to not let it happen. The day after Precious revealed his plan to leave me and my kids to go chase some lovelife he had suddenly found I decided to go to the pub for the first time in many years. I called the babysitter after I finished work and asked her to stay a bit longer and then I went straight to the pub.

Not much had changed it seemed, even though The Blank Slate was one of the few places that offered anything in the kind of nightlife it was quiet. Perhaps it also helped that it was in the middle of the week and only the really lonely and poor souls would make their way to the pub at 4 ó clock.

I went upstairs to drown my sorrows with juice. I felt more miserable than I had ever done in my life before and not even a day at work had managed to ease my mind. Juice was the only escape I could think of now. Until I came upstairs and saw Lychee by the bar, that is. I stopped in my track towards the bar and just looked at him. Lychee Button, also a father to one of my kids. He looked so lonely by the bar and I couldn’t help but remember the sight of him when I saw him in Briocheport. Back then he had been surrounded by snake girls and had looked happy and content and now it was the complete opposite. I decided to go up to him.

He barely looked at me when I took place next to him but he waved to the bartender and ordered a drink for me. I smiled and drank it without even saying a word to him first. He finished his glass too before speaking and when he finally did I noticed that he slurred. He had probably finished quite a few drinks already. “Ish not like Brioshh-portsh eschatly” he said and ordered another drink.

“It’s not” I agreed and ordered another drink myself.

“She dumped me” he slurred after another sip of the juice and I could barely believe my ears. “She dumped Lyschee Buttshon. Ha!”

I tugged at his sleeve and made him come with me away from the bar as I realized the bartender’s ears had grown way too big overhearing the subject. “Why would she do that?” I wondered and my own troubles suddenly seemed much more distant, even though Lychee’s troubles were a perfect reflection of my own.

“She doeshn’t love me anymore” he sighed and fell in to my arms, sobbing. It felt weird, comforting Lychee. I had learned to see him in a whole new way after meeting him as an adult and this sobbing mess was not how I pictured him.

“Then she’s an idiot” I said and was surprised to realize that I meant it. Lychee was a good guy, he was cute and he was rich and famous. Lots of girls wanted him and throwing him away was a real waste. I suddenly enjoyed comforting him and when he stumbled down the stairs I followed him.

I stood waiting outside the toilet stall and tried to shut out the pouring sound from within. When Lychee came back out I threw myself in his arms. I needed this comfort and he did too. That didn’t stop him from being surprised by it all, though.

“Whatcha doing?” he wondered once he managed to break free.

“I’m kissing you” I replied and threw myself in his arms again and this time he didn’t object but instead returned the kiss. He tasted of alcohol and as we kissed I managed to forget about Precious. It was a good distraction.

When he followed me home it was only the natural step. It was something we both needed – to feel wanted and to have some company. And the next morning one of my kids could eat breakfast together with both her mother and father and that was definitely out of the ordinary.

“Do you mind if I come here to see you and Coral once every now and then?” Lychee asked during the breakfast and I said that I definitely wouldn’t mind. Both he and I really needed each other’s company now.

—

A few days later we met Thunderbird and dad at the Winter Festival. It all happened because of three reasons: 1) Dad wanted to see his grandchildren and was feeling very lonely after Oceana’s passing. 2) Both Taxus and Coral had been begging to get to see Thunderbird more. Taxus thought it was cool that he was a vampire and Coral wanted him to teach her how to skate. 3) I wanted to see his gorgeous face again.

I had never realized how much he meant for my father or how close they had been but it became rather clear now that my father was grieving. It seemed like neither his siblings or two best friends had any time for hime and as such Thunderbird stepped in like some kind of savior.

It was nice hanging out with Thunderbird not only because he was good on the eye but also because he told me things about my father I never would have guessed. Apparantly my father had been a very brave young man back in the days. It was quite hard to believe.

Coral raced for the skating rink as soon as we got to the festival lot and she looked very unstable as she tried her hand at the skating. “Please help me Thunderbird” she cried and he excused himself from my side and went to skate with my daughter.

Although I must say it was rather cheaty with his vampiric speed. He was usually trying to keep a low profile and not everyone knew that he was a vampire, but since it was a school day and not many people at the festival he took the opportunity to show off. Coral looked at him dreamily as if she wished to have the same skating skills. I doubt she even noticed the fact that he wasn’t even wearing skates.

Dad was mostly cuddling with Bittersweet the entire time and it seemed to make him happy so we mostly let him be. When Coral was tired of skating she threw off her jacket and went up to Thunderbird. “That was so cool on the ice” she said and smiled impressed. “You’ll teach me some day, won’t you?”

Thunderbird laughed, “We’ll see.”

Both Bittersweet and Coral got quite tired at the end of the day and dad offered to take them home. Taxus followed them, which meant it was only me and Thunderbird left. It didn’t take long until he approached me with a seductive smile. “You’re just as gorgeous as every Twist woman before you” he said and placed his arms around my neck.

“How old are you?” I wondered, realizing he could be several hundreds of years.

“29” he replied and grinned.

“And for how long have you been 29?”

“For approximately 250 years.”

Maybe it should have made me scared and made me want to get off him. I knew nothing of vampires except the things I had read in books. Maybe they were dangerous and it seemed very possible that he would be able to tear me apart just with a snap of his finger.

But it didn’t make me scared or nervous. It made me thrilled. I saw in front of me a new adventure, a new experience and I decided to take my chances.

“You are a better kisser than your aunt Sweet Corn” Thunderbird said when our lips parted.

“I guess I had more training” I replied, not even bothered by admitting my loose nature. I knew I wouldn’t be at his rate anyway. When he literally sweeped me off my feet and carried me over to the photo automate I didn’t object. I smiled in his arms and it was the best adventure and experience I had ever had so far. Experience pays off, after all.

StoryProgression pushed Precious in to a relationship and made Butterfly Bush and Lychee break up so once again I changed my plans for Soda Pop’s future story. And because Thunderbird was also a popular choice among readers (and Soda herself) he also became a potential father. Both Taxus and Coral rolled relation-building wishes concerning Thunderbird too, so I decided to go with that. I have let Soda have RiskyWoohoo with both these men and we will see who will eventually become the father of the next child. 🙂

As you can see Bittersweet has a few paintings of dogs in her nursery, they are all in fact gifts from Precious to Soda Pop through the game’s attraction system. I thought it was rather fitting to put them in the nursery of his daughter. I’ve let her develop a real love for animals overall from those pictures. ^^

With the woohoo in the igloo, Soda Pop fulfilled her LTW to romance with five different guys in five different places. She has also reached Level 9 in her Firefighter career and is finally starting to make some decent money so the house (outside the kids’ rooms) will start looking a bit more furnished from now on.

Oh, and Taxus went to prom with Hyacinth (she asked) and during the night they decided to go steady. How sweet is that?

I took Bittersweet with me to Sweet Pastry just a few days after she was born. I was almost sure that if Appletini saw her niece with her own eyes she wouldn’t be able to deny the fact that Precious was the father.

“A girl?” Appletini said and smiled as soon as she was done serving her customer. I nodded as a reply.

“This is Bittersweet, your niece.”

Appletini sighed and looked down, avoiding eye contact. “You have to stop that Soda. You can’t keep saying you’ve given birth to my brother’s kids every time you have a new baby.”

“But this time it’s true, I swear!” I said and stretched Bittersweet towards her. “Look, it is Precious’ daughter. You can see it, can’t you?”

“She’s cute, but please, for my sake, and your own, stop saying it’s Precious’.” Her hands dropped down to her sides and as my eyes followed them I saw that her belly was looking a bit swollen. It was really subtle, but it sure did look like a baby bump. I should know one when I saw one. When she noticed that I was looking she tugged a bit at her shirt, pulling it down as if she was trying to cover up.

I wanted to ask her about it, but I figured she would probably just force me to leave if I did. Instead I said, “It is Precious daughter, I’m not lying. He came to my house and we made a baby. He could even confirm it if you asked him.”

“Look, I don’t know why you’re so obsessed with my brother because really, he’s bad news. I don’t even talk to him that much. And I won’t have him either confirm or deny that baby. It’s none of my business really.” Her voice reared up at the end and once she was done talking she rubbed her lower back. It should have been an innocent gesture but I knew exactly why she did it. Because that spot she had rubbed was the exact spot where my back had been hurting during the first few weeks, and especially when I got worked up about something.

I knew for sure right then, Appletini was pregnant. Bittersweet was going to have a cousin.

“Look, I really need your help” I said. “I don’t know how to get in touch with your brother and he should at least know that he has a baby, that he is a father now. It’s only fair.”

Appletini just shook her head and walked off behind the counter. I wouldn’t give up so easily though and I followed her, “Just give me his phone number, please?”

In the end she caved in and scribbled down his number on an old receipt. I hung on to it as if it was the most valuable of treasures – which in my case, it was.

—

I never found the courage to actually call Precious that day, because really, what should I say? It was most likely the last chance I would get and I did not want to blow it. I needed him. So. bad.

The next day I started dialing his number three times but interrupted the call every time. Why was it so hard? The fourth time I actually managed to keep the phone to my ear for two signals before I hung up. I sighed and put the phone back in my pocket. I couldn’t do it. I didn’t know how. I needed to see him, needed to look him in the face when I told him about Bittersweet. In fact, he probably needed to see her himself. But how on earth could I make that happen?

“Just do it already” I eventually thought to myself and dialed the number for a fifth time, this time around without hanging up before his answering machine took the call. I hung up again, there was no way I would tell him the big news over the machine.

Since I had finally gathered enough courage to actually do something, I decided to not let that opportunity slip and sent him a text saying I needed to talk to see him. I did not know if he would reply and in all honesty I doubted it. He was like me, he walked away once he got what he wanted. Fudge.

I waited several days and just kept looking at my phone every other minute. I imagined it vibrating when it didn’t and when it actually did I was only disappointed when it wasn’t Precious. I was going rather crazy over the whole thing.

I went to see Appletini a couple of times too but it only made me hurt more to see her. She was in a lucky relationship with the father of her baby and she always looked so happy. And she looked so much like Precious too. Perhaps I tried to be her friend only to be able to get to Precious in the end. I don’t even know myself any more.

Precious Pastry. It was the only one, and the only thing, I could think of.

Taxus was rarely ever at home now that he was old enough to go to school. Ever since the day I bought him his bike he was constantly exploring our town. It was nice to have him out of the house. I felt rather cramped with all these kids around. And besides my obsession with Precious felt huge too, it was as if it needed a whole room of its own. Don’t ask me how that works, but it was about how it felt.

And so, before I knew it summer had passed and the leaves on the trees were turning red and yellow and then fell down from their branches. I found myself surprised by this because I hadn’t realized how much time had passed. All I had done for weeks was feed kids, work and think about Precious.

I decided to host a costume party just to get my mind on something different, if only for a night.

I dressed myself and Coral up as bunnies and Taxus decided he wanted to be an alien. I was nowhere near as excited as I used to be for a party.

Canary, Plum and Hyacinth arrived first. I can’t even try to describe how much I love that family. Seriously, if it weren’t for them I would never survive my own days. Both Plum and Canary was there for me whenever I needed it and they had helped me with my kids so much that I owed them my life.

While Canary cuddled with Bittersweet I got a phone call from my cousin Butterfly Bush who wondered if she could bring her new boyfriend who was just visiting from Briocheport. I said honestly that I would love it if she did.

She came as a zebra, or something. I don’t even know. She looked quite silly, however and she even managed to scare Coral just by stepping in to the nursery.

She was smiling and you realized just by looking at her that she was very much in love, and that she was happy.

I had not expected her to introduce Lychee as her boyfriend, though, and I was startled to say the least. And he just smiled when he said hi, as if it was the most normal thing in the world that he was at my costume party.

I cringed, this would be quite the party once he realized he had a daughter in this house – with the cousin of his new girlfriend. “Hey Lychee” I said and managed a smile.

“Long time no see” he said with confidence. “I hope you had a good time in Briocheport.”

I glanced over at Coral who was now sitting happily on the floor. She giggled a little and pounded her toy rabbit to the floor. Lychee looked over at her too and it wasn’t until then I realized that the room was empty, except for myself, Lychee and our daughter.

“I didn’t know you had kids” he said without letting his eyes leave Coral.

“Uhm, ye.. Three actually” I said and nodded, desperately trying to come up with a way to get him to look at me and not at the wall behind Coral. I had begun hanging the trophies from the father’s in their respective room and right now it seemed like an incredibly stupid idea. If Lychee saw himself on the wall above the changing table he would do the maths and realize Coral was his daughter. I didn’t want that to happen. That would risk the relationship between him and my cousin and she seemed so happy.

As on delivery Mustard and Canary came in to the room at that very moment and with that the awkwardness was gone. I couldn’t stop worry that Lychee would ask about the photos though and as soon as I got a moment I took them down and placed them upside down on the changing table.

The party was a success despite the awkward knowledge of my cousin dating the father of one of my children. Neither Plum or Canary (who were the only ones who knew for sure) said anything. Did I mention that I love them?

After the costume party I went back to thinking about Precious and how I could get him to come see me. Very few things could distract my thoughts, but one of them was work, I loved the excitement of the station and the probability of a sudden alarm. While I was there I could forget the fact that Precious really didn’t seem to want to meet me since he never replied to the text or answered the few times I dared to call.

Several months passed without me hearing from him and it was soon time for yet another batch of birthdays, Coral’s and Bittersweet’s to be precise:

Dad came but he cried the entire night because mom passed away a few weeks earlier. It didn’t affect me except for the fact that it was sad to see my father so upset.

Before I brought Coral to the cake I stood with her in front of the pictures of me and Lychee and I told her that he was her father. She gurgled something in response, but like Taxus she never learned how to actually speak.

Lychee came in while we stood in front of the pictures and when he saw them he smiled. “Hah, you kept them!”

I felt my cheeks turned red and I didn’t dare to turn around and look at him as I replied, “Yea, I did.”

He didn’t say anything more in the matter even though I’m fairly sure he understood. Her age was just right and she had his skin and his facial structure and his adorable downhill-nose. Not that I would enlighten him of the matter, of course.

I helped Coral blow the candles while our friends and family cheered in the back.

Dad’s old friend Thunderbird had even come to celebrate the birthdays. He looked incredibly young to be my father’s friend – but I guess that’s just how it is with vampires. I hadn’t met him much and I think he tagged along just because dad was hurting and needed support and I certainly approved because he was really nice to look at, handsome as he was.

Coral grew up to be a very cute little girl and yet again I found myself astonished with how adorable that downhill-nose was. Lychee had good genes, that was one thing that I could be happy about.

“Is she mine?” Lychee whispered while we were watching her taking her first steps as a child and I blushed again. “I just need to know” he whispered again, so low that it was impossible for anyone but me to hear.

I nodded slightly, “Yes. But you have to be with Bush” I whispered back.

Lychee nodded, “I know. I’m no father.”

“I know” I whispered back and then went to grab a piece of cake before anyone would start wondering what we were doing.

Bittersweet looked a lot like me when she grew up but she did have Precious’ pointy ears, which I was happy about because it would make it easier to convince him that she was indeed his daughter – once I got the opportunity.

Coral didn’t even eat any cake before heading back in to her room. She climbed on top of her rocking horse and seemed to pretend that she was a cowboy. She looked funny. And cute.

I realized again that I actually did like her.

—

I kept waiting for a reply from Precious but nothing ever came. I had almost given it up all together when Appletini called to tell me she had her baby, a little boy who she and Blackeye named Ferrari. As soon as I heard the news I rushed over to her house to meet the little one. Appletini herself was at work so Blackeye just showed me in to where Ferrari was lying content and happy in his crib.

I picked him up and looked at him. He had that freckly red skin that both Appletini and Precious had and I thought it was rather unfair that Bittersweet hadn’t inherited it too. It was just way too adorable.

I had brought Bittersweet with me but she did not approve of being left alone in the kitchen while I inspected the newborn baby and after just a short moment I had to rush out to get her.

Appletini came home while I was still there and at the sight of me she looked rather nervous. Or in fact, that nervous look was pretty much her natural look. “Oh, Soda Pop… Hi” she stammered when she saw me.

“Hey, congratulations on your baby” I said and smiled.

“Uhm… Thanks. But really Soda… I must ask you to leave, you can’t just come here whenever you want. You have to call first.”

“Wowow, look Apple, I just came to see him and congratulate you. This has nothing to do with your brother!” It was true but the words had barely left my lips until the front door was opened and Precious stood in the doorway. My heart skipped a beat at the sight of him and I felt my cheeks turn red. He looked at me startled and then at his sister in a questioning way. She just shrugged.

The next moment he had scooped Bittersweet up in his arms and tickled her before turning to me, “Another baby, huh?”

I blushed. This was it.

“Uhm, yes…” I stammered. It was incredibly hard to utter the fateful words. “And… this time… she really is yours.”

Precious took a long look at Bittersweet and it was almost possible to see his brain working to process the news. “Why should I believe you this time?” he finally asked.

“I can prove it!” I said.

“And how is that?”

“We take a DNA-test. You will see. She really is yours.”

“And why would I agree to that?”

My heart sank. He had a point, why should he?

“Because she is your daughter Precious. She really is.”

He suddenly looked incredibly sad and Bittersweet decided to rest her little head against his shoulder as if she was trying to comfort her father. “I knew you lied with Coral. She couldn’t have been my daughter. But this one here, she actually can. And no, I wouldn’t want to give you the pleasure. You ruined that by lying in the first place.” He paused and handed me my daughter. “She is yours. The only thing I want to do here in Fondant Fields now is to be a good uncle to Ferrari. I won’t stay. And you can’t force me to take any test. That’s final.”

My whole world crashed at that moment.

“You will” I snarled. “You will take responsibility and you will come visit her because she is your daughter and she deserves to know you. You don’t know what it’s like to grow up with only one parent, do you? Well, I have news for you, I DO! And I am not letting Bittersweet go through that. You will come and visit, DNA-test or not. And that, Precious Pastry, is final!”

I had never thought about it that way before, but now that I said it to Precious, I realized it was true. My kids deserved to get to know their fathers and I would do whatever I could to make that happen from now on.

Once again StoryProgression decided to lead the way in this story. I wasn’t entirely sure whether to let Precious or Lychee be the guy wanting to know their kid (and as such be around for more baby making 😉 ) but then SP knocked Appletini up at the same time as it paired Lychee and Butterfly Bush (Soda Pop’s cousin) up and as such the “decision” was made. Lychee will definitely be around for as long and he and Butterfly Bush are together and Precious will also come to visit now and then. And since I have rolled 5 kids, only time will tell who the next father(s) will be.

I’m sure you’ve all figured by now, but Soda Pop’s generation will be longer that the previous ones. I would guess we end up at around 20 chapters or so.

By now I knew the symptoms well enough to tell early on. The hurricane of feelings within my body hadn’t been just feelings – it had been a baby.

And this time I wasn’t mistaken, it was Precious baby. I should have been sad about it, but when I rubbed my subtly swollen belly, I smiled. Precious’ baby was growing inside me. We had made a baby. Together.

The problem was just that he was nowhere to be found. I wanted to tell him about the baby, I wanted him to be apart of its life – my life. But every time I came to Sweet Pastry it was Appletini standing behind the counter.

And every time I asked anything about her brother she refused to talk about him. Even after months I was no closer to finding out where he lived or how I could find him.

I’m not sure if friendship is the right word, but there was definitely something growing between me and Appletini after all the afternoons I came to Sweet Pastry and chatted to her. She was still getting annoyed every time I asked about her brother, but she had also started smiling while refusing to talk about him.

“Look Soda” she said one day and locked her eyes to the ceiling, as if she didn’t want to look at me. “He’s bad news. Okay? My brother, you don’t really want him.”

“I need to talk to him, that’s all” I lied. The truth was that I did want him even if I had figured he was rather good at hurting me.

“You don’t understand” I said and placed a hand on my belly when a kick from Precious’ baby hit me. “I’m pregnant.”

Appletini giggled, “I knew that already. You would never look that pudgy willingly.”

“It’s his” I said and searched her face for any reaction. I had never been so sure of who the father was before, but this baby, it was definitely Precious. And I really needed him to come to my side and help me out and be with me. And I needed Appletini to help me find him or to talk to him or… do something.

She said nothing but she stared at me with the deadliest look I had ever seen her giving. “It is his” I said again and nodded, as if I tried to show her that I had at least convinced myself about that matter.

“You know, you said that once before and that was such a big and ugly lie and you’re an idiot if you think he will fall for it again. I may not be on the best of terms with my brother, but what you did was just awful.” It was all she had to say in the matter and after that she would just turn her back at me whenever I tried to bring Precious or my baby up again.

It had been a mistake to say that Coral was his in the first place, I knew that – I had known all along. But I never could have imagined that the lie would be the final obstacle in my way towards a happy life with Precious. He had wanted Coral to be his too, hadn’t he? That was why he had been fooled, wasn’t it? He wanted to be a father. If he only knew now!

Appletini never spoke another word about Precious or my baby after that and whatever friendship we had built up was definitely gone again. After some time I simply had to accept the fact that I wouldn’t manage to get to Precious that way. With Plum and Canary both back to work I was rather lonely during the days and I tried to just stay at home and care for Coral, I really did. But it didn’t work out. I couldn’t be a stay-at-home-mom. I could barely even be a mom. I needed my life – my own life.

In the end, I took to my last possible option: Begging to Blizzard to get my job back.

His eyes were cold and bossy when he told me no. “You’re pregnant, Soda. It would be bad for the baby if you worked.”

“But I need it” I protested. “I’m going crazy at home!”

“And I’m not letting you” Blizz said again and that was his final word in the matter. He was a tough boss, but a good one, I had to give him that. But still, I was his sister and he should know how much work meant to me and how crazy I would get being at home all day with Coral.

“But, I suppose you could hang out here during the days if it gets lonely at home” he said and smiled before walking away from me, tending to one of the firetrucks in the garage. I looked after him as he got to work and my entire body begged for working as well. I really loved my job, I suddenly realized.

I took his advice and started coming in to the station even if I wasn’t allowed to actually work. Mostly I sat by the TV chatting to my replacement. She was an old lady and even though I came in every day I had never seen her do any actual work at the station. She just sat there playing games or watching TV. That made me even more annoyed because I knew I would do a better job than her, even if I was pregnant.

“Don’t you have stuff to do?” I asked one day, rather subtle and friendly. I wasn’t going to make enemies just because I didn’t like the way she spent her days.

“Ah, I’m resting” she replied and her voice was swaying like old berry’s voices do all the time. A picture of her resting outside a burning flashed before my eyes and made me shake my head in disapproval. She was not good enough to replace me.

Every day I came to the secod floor of the station during my pregnancy she was there, always just relaxing in front of the TV. In this rate, the alarms would soon be useless and the firetrucks would be slow. I hated the very thought of it. But what could I do, really?

I put Coral on the floor and picked the other controller up from the floor. I was so annoyed. So very annoyed. It was ridicoulous that I had been replaced by an old lady who did nothing better than play games and watch TV. And she wasn’t even good at that, I beat her easily at SimFighter.

And so one day there was an alarm while I was there. When I, with my huge pregnancy body, had managed to get to the lower floor with Coral in my arms before that old woman had even got up from the sofa I had finally had enough. Blizz couldn’t let this slip!

Luckily, no one died in the extra minutes it took them to get to the right house. But I knew that minutes could mean the difference. Fudge, seconds could mean the difference and that old lady had just proved exactly how useless she was.

I approached Blizzard about it later that day.

“Fine” he grunted, probably irritated over both my nagging and the poor call-out earlier during the day. “You can work. But only at the station. Keep the alarms and trucks in shape.”

I hadn’t felt that happy in several months. He would let me work!

And work I did! Coral was by my side the entire time and honestly she seemed happy enough to just be there with her stuffed teddy. In contrast to most other berries I gained energy rather than lose it from my work because I enjoyed it so much. It was way easier being a mother when I could also do the things I enjoyed. It had to be good for both me and my kids that I was happy.

The alarms were in a pretty bad shape since they hadn’t been looked after in quite some months but I managed to trim them up to the point where they should function at their best. No seconds would be lost because of neglected alarms while they were on my watch.

It felt so good being back at work. I finally had my own life back, even if it was far from how I had pictured it. The parties were all gone and I had ended up with two kids and another on the way. And I was single. But yes, it felt good.

And the paycheck was better when I actually did work and perhaps I could actually afford to keep my kids’ rooms up to par this way. Who would have known that kids were so expensive?

My old lady replacement was still always watching that stupid TV on the upper floor. It didn’t bug me as much now that I cared for the alarms and the trucks, but it still annoyed me that she was so slow at responding to the alarms. I needed to get back as soon as possible.

—

It must be something about the full moon and pregnancies that does not go too well together because when the full moon rose over the town I went in to labour. Taxus was helping me with the dishes when it happened and when he saw my face crinkle in pain he panicked. “What’s happening? Mom, mom! Are you okay mom?”

The initial pains were so strong that I couldn’t answer him or even try to calm down. I just had to focus on breathing.

This worried Taxus even more and he started jumping from one foot to the other. Poor guy had no clue what I was going through, and didn’t know that I had done this two times already. It was probably harder for him than for me this one time.

“Taxus, go to your room and stay there. Don’t come down here until I say you can again, okay?” I said it with a firm voice and Taxus hesitated before leaving me on my own. He was probably worried about me, but he would be more scarred if he saw what was happening than if he left – that much I was sure of.

A couple hours later I held a little baby girl in my arms. Precious’ girl. I smiled and felt incredibly lucky. She was a true treasure. I only wished she would have got Precious’ skin as that would have made it so much easier to convince both him and Appletini that this was indeed his baby. I would simply have to keep my fingers crossed now. They couldn’t ignore her now that she was here, could they?

I decided to name her Bittersweet. It was the most fitting name I could think of because that was exactly what she was – Bittersweet. Sweet because she was Precious’ baby and Bitter because of the very same thing.

I went up to Taxus room shortly afterwards and showed him the little girl. He looked at her with big eyes as if he was trying to grasp how she had suddenly arrived. “She’s so little” he said after a little while and anxiously poked her arm.

“She is” I agreed and nodded. “This is your new sister. Her name is Bittersweet.”

“How did she come out from your belly?” he wondered and I sat down on the edge of his bed and decided to tell him where babies came from and why I had been in so much pain. He crinkled his nose and muttered stuff like “Gross”, “Disgusting” and “Eeew” but in the end I think he was glad that I had explained and I hoped it would mean he didn’t have any nightmares about what he had seen.

“I wish she was a boy” he said when I stood up and he looked at Bittersweet again. “I already have a sister. I want a brother. Girls are gross.”

“Well, you can’t decide beforehand” I said and smiled.

“I still wish she was a boy” he muttered and crawled under the sheets to go to sleep. I kissed his forehead and whispered goodnight before I turned the lights off and left his room. He had become so big and I felt like I barely knew him at all. How is one supposed to have time to get to know their kids when you have to work to pay the bills and afford to feed them all? It was a mystery to me. And surely, a nice home and food on the table had to be the top priority, even I understood that – with the little I knew about being a family.

The next week passed with no major events whatsoever. I worked, came home to feed and change on the kids, got to sleep and it was the same thing over again. It was like an endless loop which only occasionally would take a side turn and leave me with some time to hang out with my friends. Usually, I was too tired for that though and the times my friends or family came to visit I usually took the opportunity to get some rest while they kept the kids busy.

I was looking forward to Taxus aging up and starting school so I would have only one toddler to feed. Taxus would learn to care for himself more and more the older he got. I couldn’t wait.

When his (and his younger sister’s) birthday finally came, Loquat came over early with some dinner. I was very grateful for not having to care about that since the simple task of going in to Sweet Pastry to pick up the cakes felt rather draining. “You okay sis?” Loquat wondered as he put the food on my kitchen table. I slammed a hand across my face and moaned. It explained fairly well how tired I was.

To my big surprise the next guest to arrive was Precious. I hadn’t seen him since that day at the café and I certainly hadn’t expected him to actually accept the invitation to the birthday party. And yet there he was, running through my kitchen and up to Loquat who was holding Coral in his arms.

Precious stopped right in front of my brother and just looked at Coral. “She doesn’t look like me” he said after a while and it was the first words uttered since he first came running. I was still so surprised by his presence that I couldn’t say a thing.

“She does a bit” Loquat replied and looked from Coral to Precious and back again. He had never asked who Coral’s father was, and must have assumed that it was Precious. It was because of the skin, I thought.

I didn’t say anything because I felt rather confused by Precious presence and luckily the doorbell sounded just then and I had a reason to leave the kitchen. It was so weird, the whole thing. Coral was of course not Precious’, he should have understood that. So, what was he doing here?

I brought Taxus up to the cake as soon as everyone had managed to get here and helped him blow the candles. The sooner we had this over with, the better.

Plum and Loquat were the ones cheering most frenetic and they had even brought some party horns to make sure there was some noise. As if I didn’t get enough noise with two kids in the house.

Jaffa Dolphin, Blizzard and Spray cheered from the other end of the room with their mouths still filled with the delicious food Loquat had brought. I strongly suspected it was dad who had cooked it because I couldn’t imagine that Loquat was that skilled with cooking. Precious was holding Coral in his arms right next to Loquat and all I could think of when I put Taxus on the floor for his transition was that I needed to hold her when she was brought to the cake.

While Taxus grew up in to a rather sad-looking (and not as cute as you would have expected with me as his mother) child I snatched Coral from Precious’ arms and brought her up to the other cake. He didn’t complain but watched my daughter closely the entire time. I don’t think his eyes left her for even a split of a second.

When she crawled out in the livingroom towards where Plum was sitting and eating her cake, Precious followed.

He sat down next to Plum in the sofa and I think he let Coral out of sight for the first time in several minutes when he turned to Plum to speak. I couldn’t help but to eavesdrop on them.

“She’s not mine, is she?”

Plum simply ignored him and kept eating her cake. I knew I could trust her, she was my best friend after all. I never planned on getting him to ponder over whether he had a child or not but I had to admit that it made me happy to see. It was some kind of revenge, even if it wasn’t the kind I had first planned for.

Precious continued, “I mean, she does look a bit like me but there’s still something about her that does not look like me at all. I mean, she has about the same skin as I do but she lacks the freckles. Everyone in my family has freckles. If that was indeed my skin, she would have freckles too.”

“You know it’s her first birthday, right?” Plum said and then went back to being quiet and ignoring him. Precious was quiet for some time too, he seemed to debate with himself what it meant. Although, he soon started talking fast and incoherently again and I could see that Plum zoned out and stopped listening to him.

“Coral Twist” Precious said and lifted my daughter up. I didn’t know if he had called my bluff yet but while lifting her he looked her deep in to the eyes. I walked in to the nursery where Coral would reside from now on since Taxus had got his own bedroom on the upper floor. I could still watch Precious and Coral from there, but it got harder hearing what he said.

The thing was, I was starting to feel rather sick about the whole thing. It was quite awful to see him trying to work out whether or not Coral was his daughter.

People started leaving after they had eaten their cake but Precious stuck around. He just couldn’t keep his eyes off Coral and after picking her up in the first place, he didn’t seem to want to put her down again. ‘I need to tell him’ I thought.

I never got the chance.

Once everyone had left he walked in to the nursery and tucked Coral down in the crib before walking over to me. He pulled me in for a passionate kiss and I realized that this was exactly why I had said that Coral was his in the first place. I wanted her to be. I wanted Taxus’ to be his too.

I wanted Precious. Not like I wanted most men, but more. I wanted to keep him. Always have him around. Never lose him.

We didn’t talk much after that and he ended up staying the night. The sexual act was just as amazing as I remembered from the last time. Precious was my god.

Afterwards we laid naked together and I rested my head on his bare chest, feeling it rising and lowering with every breath he took. His heart was beating against my ear and I felt happy.

“Why did you lie?” he suddenly whispered and kissed my hair. I wondered when he had realized, if maybe he had understood it all along.

“I wanted it to be true” I replied honestly.

He didn’t say anything else in the matter and shortly afterwards we fell asleep. I was feeling happier than I had been in a very long time and I knew it was because Precious was there, in my home – in my bed.

When I woke up I sleepily rolled over towards the side where Precious had been sleeping only to find that it was once again empty. He had bailed on me again. It hurt way more than anything had ever hurt before and I wanted to crawl back under the sheets and just cry.

That wasn’t possible though because Coral was pretty much screaming at the top of her lungs, demanding breakfast. I sighed heavy and pulled myself up.

It was hard to keep on like everything was normal, even though it kind of was. There were pictures of me and Precious on the bedroom wall, next to the pictures of me and Fandango. They were my trophies. I had started gathering them after Taxus was born because for some reason it felt good.

Trophies, proofs or prizes. It was not much different from the fishermen who hangs their biggest catches on the walls. However, at this point I actually thought of taking Precious down because he had hurt me once again. I couldn’t believe I had let myself be so exposed. I had been a fool and now I had to pay the prize.

—

I was hurting and I was angry, not so much at Precious for bailing on me, but on myself for lowering my guard and allowing myself to get hurt. There was no such thing as love. I had known it all along and yet I had fallen for it. I had secretly been hoping for a life with Precious without even realizing it myself until I had dug my own grave and prepared a way for him to hurt me.

Trying to get rid of the hurt and the anger I did the only thing I knew I could do. I devoted myself to my work. Not only did I work harder than anyone else while we were at work, I also brought work home and kept working even when I should be resting. I had to keep myself busy. It granted me a promotion but it didn’t ease the hurricane of emotions within my body.

Taxus went for his first day in school and since we lived just across the streets I could stand watching him as he sprinted towards the adventure of elementary school. I was rather proud of myself for getting through all those years. I had been decent.

I waved after him but he didn’t look back once. His eyes were glued to the doors of the school building.

I don’t know if it was the realization of seeing my son grow up so quickly or if it was the fact that the house became a lot more quiet or if it was still the emotions from the whole Precious thing but once Taxus had gone through the doors and out of my sight I threw up.

My house was completely silent and calm, which definitely wasn’t common. In fact, I rarely had time or peace to read the newspaper since at least one of the kids constantly demanded my attention. It was usually a constant flow of bottle feeding and diaper changes.

I had never been much for silence and calm but it felt as a rare luxury to get time for myself to do such a common thing as read the newspaper. A small note at the bottom of the fifth page caught my attention. It was really no more than a headline and three sentences, but to me it meant more than any front page news I had ever read:

Sweet Pastry expanding to Fondant Fields

The Pastry family have finally found a place to run their business

in Fondant Fields. The old pavilion in the city's centre is

currently being renovated to house various types of bread, croissants,

pies and pastries. Scheduled day for opening is on saturday in two weeks.

“Plum” I said and lowered the newspaper to the table. She hummed something in response without looking up from her book.

“Did you know that Sweet Pastry is opening here?”

“What?” she sighed and put her book upside down on the table. It was rare for her too to have time for reading and therefore she didn’t exactly appreciate my interruption.

“Sweet Pastry. You know, Precious family’s business.”

“Are you still dreaming of him?” she teased and I blushed. It was silly, I know. It had been years since I met him and I had given birth to two kids since then, but the fact that he had walked out on me was still hurting. I wanted an explanation or revenge or something.

—

Both Canary and Plum found it funny to tease me about the whole Precious thing. They rarely ever shut up about it. In fact, I was starting to get a bit tired of it, but then they offered to come with me to the opening of Sweet Pastry and I understood that all their teasing was just made with love. They were my best friends.

My father came to watch the kids for me while I went to explore the town’s newest place. We headed over to the City Center in the late afternoon, not long before Sweet Pastry would close after its first day in Fondant Fields. I couldn’t imagine it had been anything but a success.

It was a good place chosen for such a business. The old pavilion hadn’t been used for anything in years and had simply been falling apart and forgotten. A few locals went there for barbecues occasionally, but that was about it. It would serve a lot better as a cafe. The octagonal building had been kept and they had simply refreshed the painting on the walls and put up a few signs. It looked good. In one of the corners of the surrounding park stood a photo automate and it made me smile.

We stepped in through the door and saw a counter filled with various sweets and pastries and in the other end of the room four small cafe tables that were inviting you to take a moment with friends you cared about. A jukebox was pumping out some old pop songs and overall it was an inviting place.

“Welcome to Sweet Pastry, what can I do for you?” The girl behind the counter smiled. She looked just like him and it didn’t take me long to figure she was a member of the Pastry family herself.

“Is Precious here?” I asked and went straight to the core. I put the hand on my hip and tried to look confident even though the very thought of Precious was one of the few things that could actually make my confidence sway.

“Precious?” the girl asked and raised her eyebrows. It was clearly not something she had been expecting.

“Precious Pastry, you know him, don’t you?”

“Uhm…” the girl scratched the back of her head. She was trying to dodge the question. Not wanting to just let it slip I just waited in silence until she finally spoke again, “He’s not here.”

I sighed. She was making this much harder than it needed to be.

“Look, I’m not running my brother’s errands. Do you want something to eat or not?” the girl sighed in a much less welcoming tone than she had greeted us with at first.

“We’ll have cupcakes then” I said and again put the hand on my hip. Her brother, huh? At least I was getting somewhere.

Me, Plum and Canary sat down at one of the small tables and enjoyed our cupcakes. My friends were both rather quiet the whole time but I figured they just didn’t know what to talk about now that my mind was all set on finding Precious again.

The girl behind the counter started cleaning and putting the leftover sweets and pastries in the fridge and I watched her, trying to find some more resemblance between her and her brother. They did look awfully much like each other but from what I could remember they did not share body language. Precious had seemed confident and upright in the way he moved whereas this girl – his sister – seemed much more nervous to her nature.

—

When I came back home I could barely believe my eyes. She was there, just nibbling away on a sandwich in my kitchen as if it was the most natural thing in the world to do. It stirred an inferno of feelings within me, and not the good kinds.

“Oh hi, your father needed to go somewhere so I’ve been watching the kids” she said. She didn’t even pretend like we hadn’t spoken a single word since the day I came to visit her at her old house and she told me she didn’t want anything to do with me.

I didn’t even respond to her. She wasn’t worth it. Instead I called my father and demanded to know why he hadn’t called me when he needed to leave and instead left my children in care of the woman least capable of all to care for children. “She just wants to get to know them” he said and I hung up. It was just not acceptable.

“I want you to leave” I said with a firm voice, not showing any emotions whatsoever. Oceana just kept chewing on the stupid sandwich – my sandwich – without making any movement. I started to think I would have to force her out physically.

“You know, I really did it to keep you safe” she said once she had swallowed the piece of bread she had been chewing on. I felt sick where I was standing by the sink and tending to the dishes. If it was something I had learned to hate, it was her stupid lies about how she did it for us and how she wanted us to be safe. I couldn’t believe dad had just taken her back when it fit her.

“Could you leave now?” I asked again, not even bothering to turn around and look at her.

She stood up and went up next to me and placed her plate on the counter next to me. “Every day I thought about you and missed you and everyday I was hurting because I was separated from you all. If I had known it wouldn’t work I never would have put any of us through that. I’m sorry Soda Pop. I really did what I thought was right and I regret it. I regret not being there for you or your siblings. It’s something I will regret to the day I die and I hope that you can forgive me one day.”

Tears burned in my eyes but I wouldn’t let them escape. I wouldn’t let her get to me. “You have such beautiful children, don’t repeat my mistake on them” she said before leaving. I looked after her with a confusing mixture of feelings. I hated her and what she had done to us and I would never forgive her, even if a part of me wanted to do so. She had lied to us, taken the easy way out. That was the truth – she never wanted us.

Once I had gathered myself and washed away every sign of her ever being here I walked in to Taxus nursery. He was peaking up through his toy box and the whole scene was so adorable that I couldn’t help but smile.

“Mama” he said when he saw me and stood up with the help of the walls of the toy box. The top of the box rested on the top of his head and he smiled. I smiled back. He didn’t talk much, and he couldn’t walk and even standing like that, with the help of the toy box was unstable for him and before I had made my way to him he fell on his bum and dropped the horse in his hand with a thump on the floor. The toy box closed above him and from within it I could hear how he was crying.

I went towards him and picked him up to comfort him. He stopped crying once I had kissed all of his fingers.

—

I kept going back to Sweet Pastry, hoping that one day Precious would be there and allow me to get my revenge. And every time I saw Appletini behind the counter my heart dropped a little. Not that I didn’t like her, because she was in fact really friendly and nice to talk to. But because every time she was there and Precious wasn’t I lost a little bit of the hope I was desperately holding on to.

I had given up trying to get her to talk to me about her brother because every time I tried she would just get really silent and try to avoid speaking to me at all. I started to think that she knew I was eager to speak with her brother without having to remind her ever other day.

“What do you suggest I try today?” I asked her and smiled. My newest tactic was to befriend her and get her to talk that way. It seemed to work better.

“I’d say you should try the Lemon Pie” she said and smiled. “It’s delicious, I bet you’ll enjoy it.”

“Fair enough.”

“Uhm, Soda Pop…” Appletini said before I had even moved away from the counter. She held her hands together in front of her, twisting them slightly and it made her look rather nervous. “Why do you need to see my brother so desperately?” she wondered.

“Because I miss him” I said, distorting the truth a bit.

“Well… Don’t tell him I said so… But he’s going to be here tomorrow. I have a day off.”

“Tomorrow? I think I better celebrate that with an ice cream” I said and smiled. Finally!

I never tried the lemon pie hat day, instead I had the best ice cream I had ever tasted. Not only did it have the sour taste of lemon but also that sweet taste of victory. I would finally get a chance to that revenge.

—

Just as Appletini had promised, Precious was standing behind the counter when I came in the next day. To put some relief on the babysitter I had brought Coral with me.

“Welcome to Sweet Pastry, what can I do for you?” Precious asked and my whole body vibrated by the sound of his voice. I had no idea what caused me to feel so much just by hearing his voice and seeing his figure.

“Hey Precious” I said and I don’t think he recognized me until just then.

“Soda Pop?”

“Long time no see” I said and his eyes kept going from Coral’s little body to my eyes, as if he was trying to understand how she could be.

“You have a daughter” he said after a while, stating the obvious.

I don’t know why I said what I did next and it didn’t really make any sense. Yet, this was what I said: “Her name is Coral and she is yours.”

Really Soda Pop?! That didn’t make any sense. There was no way she could be his and it was a sad attempt at making him feel something. I cursed myself silently as soon as the words had left my mouth.

“She’s not” he said but for some reason his voice swayed, showing a little hint of uncertainty. His eyes kept going back to Coral in my arms, who’s skin had a suitable red shade. If it wasn’t for her lack of age, she could actually have been his. But he couldn’t actually believe such was the case, could he?

“She is” I said again and fed the lie despite my instant regret. I hated lies and yet I was making them up myself. I knew from experience that lies only hurt people but for some reason I kept on to the lie I had come up with.

“But, she can’t be” he said and I noticed his shoulders slouching a bit. There was definitely doubt in his voice, but I could clearly also see that there was an itsy bitsy little part of him that believed me.

“She is your daughter, Precious” I said again.

“Is she really mine?” he asked and in his eyes a faint little sparkle was seen, but it soon faded again. “No, no. She cannot be mine.”

I shook my head and Precious stepped out from behind the counter and ignored me by pretending to read a book behind my back. I kept the lie alive by hugging Coral tightly and whispering to her, loud enough for Precious to hear it, “At least you have your mother here.”

Precious was clearly not knowing what he should think about it all and that made me feel rather happy with myself.

“It’s her birthday in a week. Bet she wants her father to be there” I said before we left that day and Precious just stood there looking rather confused and lost. That had almost been too easy.

I have recently decided to also join a collaborative random legacy together with afkthenad and (I think) Arrowleaf. It’s hosted on the official forums and we are still looking for two more to help us out. We will do two generations each and each generation shall be inspired by a song that fits the rolls and plot for that specific generation. If you’d be interested to participate in this please drop us a line in the forum thread.

It was still early when I got out of the house to be picked up by the department carpool. The babysitter practically lived at our place because I worked so much. It wasn’t something I was prepared to change either. I had come to the conclusion that my job wasn’t just a good way to charm men but also something I really enjoyed doing. Besides, I really needed the money.

Since Plum and Canary had Hyacinth they seemed to have less time for me, which meant I put even more time in to my job.

There was an excitement even to the dull days at the department. You could be casually keeping the truck or the alarms in shape, or relaxing on the upper floor with your co-workers, or working out in the yard and still there was this feeling inside you. You knew that the alarm could sound any second at it kept you on your toes. It was exciting.

Besides, my closest boss was my brother Blizzard, who was not just a good fireman but also a darn good boss.

The treadmill made a familiar mechanical and steady sound. I remembered how I used to frown upon that sound when we still lived at home and Blizzard had pretty much been obsessed with working out. Maybe we weren’t so different after all?

I liked the feeling when the muscles in my legs burned from being challenged but I was also careful to not overstrain them because I knew there could be a big fire and the need to carry a heavy man three stairs down just seconds later. It was a balance everyone at the department had learned to control the hard way. We had all been to at least one alarm where our forces were barely enough. I was getting quite good at it, actually.

—

On one of my vacant days I decided to bring Taxus with me to the Spring residence. It was nice going there because of how crowded the place was. I could just put Taxus down on the floor and someone would entertain him, letting me focus on catching up with my two best friends.

“He stinks, doesn’t he?” I asked Canary who met us with a displeasing look on her face. It wasn’t until I saw her face that I realized there was a rather pungent smell coming from my son and that I hadn’t changed his diaper since waking up. Truth be told, I tried to change it as rarely as I could because it was pretty disgusting.

“Give him to me” Canary said and took him from my arms before I could reply or do something. She didn’t even invite me in, but I followed her anyway and watched her descend up the stairs with my boy without another word. It was a relief to see him disappear from my sight.

When they came down again Taxus was dressed in shorts and a sweater instead of the pajamas he had been wearing when we came. He frowned when he looked at me.

“You have to get a grip about this” Canary said and shook her head. I knew she looked down on me for how I handled my parenting, but I never asked for a kid and I didn’t know how to be a mother. I wasn’t cut for it like she was.

“It’s easy for you to say” I said to defend myself. “You actually had a mother to teach you!”

Because really, how could I know how to be a mother when no-one had been there to show me how to? It wasn’t my fault.

“Then be a father” Canary’s father – Mithos – stepped up in front of me and said, clearly agreeing with his daughter in that I needed to step up my game. “You had a great father, learn from him.”

I shook my head. Did they really think I didn’t try? “I’m supposed to be a mother, not a father” I protested.

“There’s not really a difference in those two jobs” Mithos said and glanced back at our kids who were playing at the little table. Taxus was chewing on a red block while Hyacinth talked with adorable one-word-sentences and told her friend what the names of the different shapes were. She was two years younger than Taxus and still talked a lot better than him.

“I’m giving him everything he needs” I said when the realization hit me. I was a failure as a mother.

“It’s not just about toys” Mithos said and walked towards Barley who had wondered something about different political ideologies for his school work. Good for him to have an expert father in the matter.

Canary stepped closer to me and out her hand on my shoulder. It actually did feel comforting, just as I suspect she wanted it to. “You know that we will help you, right?”

I hugged her. What would I do without my friends?

“But really, you need to invest in him. Emotionally. He needs love.”

I nodded slowly, trying to understand what I was doing wrong. I spoiled him, which was a way of showing love. Wasn’t it?

We stood in silence just watching the two kids play for a while. The rest of the Spring family left the room which resulted in a rather peaceful atmosphere. Taxus and Hyacinth were good friends and played nicely together. Hyacinth was a real sweetheart, just like her two mothers. After a few moments of silence Canary turned towards me, “I’m probably a bit too pushy here, but…” she blushed a bit. “Are you pregnant again?”

“What?”

“Well, you have that look in your eyes. The same as with Taxus. They get a certain glow which makes you look both happy and terrified at the same time.”

“I’m not pregnant!” I protested and waved my hands in front of me. I couldn’t be, right?

“Are you sure?” Canary asked and a small smile played on her lips. “Because it’s there now. It’s kind of glassy.”

“I… I don’t know” I stammered. I mean, I hadn’t been very careful with Lychee because there hadn’t really been time for careful, but I couldn’t be pregnant again, could I?

“I knew it!” Canary exclaimed, sounding much too happy than what was fitting for this situation. I pressed my fingers against my temples, trying to push away the headache that was now creeping upon me. I had barely had time to get on my feet after having Taxus and it would be incredibly bad if I was pregnant again.

“Look at it as another chance” Canary tried and hugged me. It felt weird. Just shortly afterwards I excused myself and headed back home.

—

“Pregnant” I muttered to myself, feeling completely bummed out by the whole thing. Canary had been right, I was pregnant. And with Lychee Button’s kid of all possible men. It didn’t even matter that he was a famous record company owner, I didn’t want to birth his kid. Besides, I hated how they had pulled me off work again and now I was stuck at home, with my son and a baby on the way.

It’s safe to say that this was not how I wanted my life to be.

Plum still came over pretty much every day. Sometimes she brought Canary and Hyacinth with her and sometimes she came alone. She was practically in love with my son. Way more than I was. But then again, she didn’t need to keep a constant look on him like I did. She could simply enjoy the good moments with him without the need for any deeper responsibility. I wanted to have it that way too.

And Taxus seemed to love his aunt Plum. He was laughing and giggling while in her arms. He rarely ever smiled at me.

“So you’re going to be a big brother are you Taxus?” Plum’s voice transformed in to a lighter, more playful one which was more suited to get Taxus’ attention. I couldn’t understand how every single berry could be so easily transformed if you just put a baby in their arms. Didn’t people care about their own identities? That was what made me different. No baby could change who I was.

The full moon was shining bright over my little house. I had always been a night owl and this particular night was no exception. It had been hours since Taxus fell in to his deep slumber and as I was fiddling with the kitchen sink, trying to come up with a way to prevent it from ever breaking, I could hear the faint sounds of baby whimpers from his nursery. It wasn’t easy, but I had to admit to myself that there was something cute and love-able about that sound. He seemed pleased.

Taxus whimpering and the metallic sound of my wrench against the kitchen sink was the only thing heard through the house. It was calm and peaceful and even outside the house it seemed quiet. I wasn’t much of a loner, but this silence was rather soothing anyway.

A sharp pain in the lower parts of my belly made me drop the wrench with a CLANG down in the kitchen sink. I knew this pain, I had been through it before.

I wanted to scream but I was afraid to wake Taxus up so instead I just clutched my hands against my stomach and focused on breathing. In through the nose and out through the mouth.

The baby was coming.

Now.

It was a couple of weeks early and I wasn’t prepared. There was no nursery prepared in the house because I still had time. At least, I had thought there was more time. A quick glance at the clock on my wall told me it was 3.15 am. The middle of the night. I couldn’t call anyone simply to ask for help at this hour so I did what I had done with Taxus:

I gathered some towels and then sat down on the floor in the kitchen, spread my legs apart and continued to breathe in through my nose and out through my mouth. The body works in mysterious ways and even though you think the pain is too much you manage to keep fighting. I pushed when my body so demanded and tried to stay away from pushing otherwise. I don’t know why, it just seemed like the right thing to do and had worked just fine with Taxus.

The clock showed 4.30 when the sound of a baby’s first scream caught my eyes and I started crying by pure exhaustion. I had made it. I had a daughter now.

Her crying woke Taxus up and he too started crying. I couldn’t go to him though because the little girl in my arms needed me more.

She was so beautiful. Surprisingly, I felt rather happy about her presence and when I curled her up in my arms and snuggled her close I realized exactly what it meant to feel happiness after a birth. “I’m going to call you Coral” I whispered, still keeping the tiny baby close to my chin. I was proud of myself.

And then I realized I had nowhere to put her. Instead I just walked in to Taxus room and stroke his chin with one hand while still clutching on to my little baby girl with the other. He stopped crying once he realized he wasn’t alone.

That night I slept in the rocking chair i Taxus room with Coral in my arms and it was the first time I felt any happiness about being a mother.

Plum came over the very next day and forced me to go get some sleep while she looked after the two kids. I didn’t object, I was exhausted. “She’s so adorable” Plum said before I walked out of the room and to my bedroom. I couldn’t find the energy to even respond.

“Hello Coral, I’m your aunt Plum” she whispered and took the girl in her arms. Taxus was on the floor playing with his toy blocks but he kept throwing glances towards the little baby. It had to be confusing to him.

They had to share crib until I had bought another one, which was on top of my to-do-list. After some rest.

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The random legacy challenge

The random legacy challenge requires you to roll for each generation to randomly decide on marital structure, amount of children, careers and specific goals/restrictions for each generation. The rules can be found here.

A constantly on-going discussion about the challenge can be found in this thread on modthesims.